Manufacture of galvanic cells



Dec. 18, 1934.

A. HEILBRUNN MANUFACTURE OF GALVANIC .CELLS I Filed Aug. 12, 1952 7 Sheets-Sheet l H. He'll zbruum Dec. 18, 1934. H E|LBRUNN 1,984,926

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MANUFACTURE OF GALVANIC CELLS Filed Aug. 12, 1932 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 Patented Dec. 18, 1934' v I I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MANUFACTURE OF GALVANIC CELLS Alfred Heilbrunn, Hamburg,'Germany; assignor to the firm- L. Anker Maschinenfabrik, Hamburg, Germany Application August 12, 1932, Serial No. 628,593

,In Germany July 2,1931

'6 Claims. (c1. 226-1) This invention relates to the mass production the containers from the first runningband and of galvanic dry cells, more particularly for bats pa ing t em On n o t e cooking bath,

teries. Figure 12 shows a detail of the apparatus shown In assembling the cells from constituents which in Fig. 10 on a larger scale, and ,5- are supplied in a finished state or as raw mate- Figure 13 is a view of the cooking and cooling rial, and in the subsequent cooking, it has hiths trough, together-with adjacent parts.

erto been necessary to employ a rather large The finished zinc containers supplied are first number of workmen, who have to carry out by placed intermittently in a testing device, at the hand the individual operations, namely the sup position marked A in Figure 1, where the first plying of containers, which may require to be operator stands, who has to examine the con- 10 previously tested, the filling of. the containers tainers and take out the unserviceable ones. The with electrolyte, the insertion of the carbon apparatus-for this purpose, which is illustrated dollies, with insulation, and the introduction of in Figures 1, 2 and 3, consists of an inclined rethe container thus equipped into a cooking device.- volving drum 2, open at the top in front, and

As contrasted with this the present invention is provided with a glass bottom 1 illuminated from l5 essentially distinguished by the fact that these below, the wall 3 of which is formed with gaps operations are carried out continuously in a com- 4 for the passage of those containers which, upon pletely automatic manner, the devices for the inspection, are foundto be good, and therefore individual stages, particularly the electrolyte filldo not have to be taken out first. In the lower ing device, the device for inserting the dollies with region the gaps are covered by a tongue 5, 0 insulation, and the cooking device, each being which does not revolve with the drum and which operative automatically, and the carriage of the separates the gaps from the interior of the drum. components between the individual stages being so that the containers are here prevented from effected by running bands. As an initial stage a passing through the drum wall.

5 container testing device may be provided. The containers that pass through are carried In this manner the invention permits of ecoalong by the drum wall 3 until they arrive over nomical mass production with a minimum exholes 6 in a stationary drum support 7, into which penditure of manual labour. they fall. Underneath the holes there is a mov- The invention is illustrated" by way of examable slide 8, which is periodically opened and ple in the accompanying drawings, in which closed by the machine drive. When it is opened, 30.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of the plant four containers fall into the four grooves 9. as a whole: s The slide is so constructed that upon being Figure 2 is a side view of the container testclosed it acts at the same time as a'ram for the ing device, with a device for placing the tested Containers th v d pp d into the channels, containers upon a first running band, this view for the purpose of now pushing them intc aithold- 35, being partly in section, ing device 10 on a first running and or e con- Figure 3 is a front view of the-device shown veyor 11. Each holding device is destitglned for in Fig. 2, a group of as many con ainers as ere are Figures 4 and5 are longitudinal and trans- 9 8 3 9, that is to S Q 111 the mp e verse sections respectively through the electroluustmtedr Y 'The containers are now arrangedm groups lyte filling device. b d 1' 1 d d b Figure 6 is a plan of the apparatusfordeliverupon runmng. at} are Carrie 3 1 ing and cutting up strip shaped pieces of dolly to the electrolyte filling device 12. This filling i a device, which is located at the position marked 4 1 f th t 12 in Fig. 1, and which isillustrated in Figures 4.5 w s1 e'vlew e i us 5 own 4 and 5,"is so constructed that it first measures m Fjlg' in advance the quantity of electrolyte required Flgnure 8 1S Smmar t0 of for each container in a first group of measuring fled 10ml 9 COnStYP-CUOH Workmg chambers 13, then regulates it exactly in a secn p e 0f 1115111522011, th d f ond group of measuring chambfrtshlaand finially 50 F u 9 is 2 5601011 mug B BViCe fills it into the containers, a is being one inserting the dollies, together with their insulaa t matically. I tion in h Containers, This apparatus consists of a slide 15, contain- Figures 10 and 11 are a side view and a front ing the preparatory measuring chambers 13 and view respectively ofthe devicefor takingover reciprocated from the machinedrive. This slide is located between an upper plate 16 with bores 17 for the admission, and a lower plate 18 with passages 19, which lead to the measuring chambers 14 for the final measuring of the electrolyte. The upper slide plate 16 is resiliently arranged in relation to the lower one, so that no appreciable heat is produced by friction which might bring about premature thickening of the electrolyte.

The preliminary measuring chambers in the slide take up, as soon as the upper apertures 20 therein, by the movement of the slide, register with the outlet apertures 17 in the upper slide plate, a quantity of electrolyte, which can be regulated by a screw 21 chamber wall. During the further movement of the slide, lower apertures 22 in the preliminary measuring chambers come into register with the passages 19 in the lower slide plate, so that the electrolyte chambers 14 of the second group. The chambers 14 are closed below by valves 23 controlled from the machine drive. The exact regulating of the quantity of liquid passing into the chambers 14 is effected in each case by a regulating nut 24, which forms the upper margin of the gapped chamber, and by the height of which the volume of the chamber is determined. Excess electrolyte flows into a trough 25, from which it can be recovered.

The valves 23 move with such periodicity that they open when the containers mounted upon the running band are located just below them. The containers are in this way filled with a very accurately regulated quantity of liquid.

The running band 11 now brings the containers to the working position B, shown in Figure 1. At this position are located the auto-- matic devices illustrated in Figures 6 to 9 for inserting the carbon dollies and the insulation which insulates the dollies from the containers. One person has to insert the dollies delivered at this point, which have previously been acidified, into holes 26 in a horizontal applying wheel.2.7. Everything else is done automatically.

The applying wheel arranged above the running band 11 is rotated stepwise about a vertical shaft 28 by a ratchet and pawl gear. As soon as four holes in the wheel, filled with dollies, have arrived exactly above the four corresponding containers, which have-been brought upon the runningband, four rams 29 controlled by. a cam, press the dollies down through passages 30 until they reach sleeves 31, in which they are prevented from dropping further downwards by a movable locking pin 32. The descent of a holder 34 connected with the ram drive 33 has the result that the longitudinally displaceable sleeves 31 also sink down to the containers located below. At the end of this movement the locking pin, which is mounted on a bent lever 35 pivoted to the sleeve, by virtue of the other arm of the bent lever striking against a stop 36, is pulled away from the dollies, which now drop into the containers.

On their way downwards through the holes in the applying wheel the lower ends of the dollies find an automatically formed insulating skeleton, the centre point of which is approximately in the axis of the dolly, and which is therefore taken downwards with it into the correct position between the zinc container and the carbon dolly. For the preparatory positioning of the. insulating skeleton there serve devices by which it is automatically formed in the shape of a cross or star and placed in the holesof the applying passing through the now flows down into the measuringwheel. Crosses of presspahn, cardboard or prepared woolen threads may for example be employed. Advantageous devices for forming and supplying the cross are shown in Figures 6, 7 and 8.

If presspahn is employed, as is assumed in Figs. 6 and 7, two strip magazines 3'? are provided, out of each of which a strip of presspahn of a breadth corresponding to the size of the insulating cross is led to the applying wheel, one

strip in the longitudinal direction of the machine for instance, and the second at ri ht angles thereto.

By an intermittently acting drive 39, each of the strips is pushed so far forward that a piece corresponding to the breadth of the arm of the insulating cross projects beyond the edges of a cutting support 40. In this position the strip is held fast by resilient pointed tips 41, which descend with the cutting knife 42, and grip the strip during the cutting. The cross strip out 01f falls into the receiving groove 43 of a reciprocating slide 38. As soon as the two arms of a cross in the two superposed slides have arrived above a hole 26 in the applying wheel, the ram 44 descends and pushes the two bars, superposed crosswise in the grooves, through apertures in the slides into the hole in the applying wheel. The ends of the intersecting bars then rise up, so that an insulating skeleton of the desired form is produced. During the further rotation of the applying wheel, the holes in the applying wheel provided with the insulating piece have dollies inserted into them by hand, and now pass into the path of the four rams 29, which, in the manner already described, lower the dollies, together with the insulation, into the containers upon the running band.

If woolen threads are employed, as is assumed in Fig. 8, two supply threads 45 are provided, which again intersect one another at right angles, and, after running through a bath 46, which may contain liquid paraflin of high melting point for example, are severed by cutting appliances 47, and carried into the holes in the applying wheel like the presspahn bars;

The further procedure also agrees with that adopted when using presspahn.

The containers now travel to the cooking position.

For the cooking there is usually used a cooking bath into which the containers are plunged. The containers may however alternately pass through a heated'cooking chamber of sufiiciently high temperature. When a cooking bath is employed it is necessary to dip the'containers into the bath from above. For this purpose are provided, according to Figures 10 to 13, beyondthe' working position 13, above the running band, suspension grippers 48, which take over the containers arriving in groups of four upon the first running band 11 and convey them into the cooking bath. In the constructional example the grippers are designed for four containers each, to correspond to the number of containers in each group. They are suspended in their turn from a second running. band 49, which, for the purpose of saving space, may be arranged at right angles to the first running band 11. The same remark applies to the cooking trough 50. Each gripper consists of tongs '1 pivoted to the running band 49, the jaws of these tongs being equipped with four recesses, corresponding to the number of containers to be held, these recesses supplementing one another in pairs to form cylinders. The two jaws are urged towards one another by a spring 52. At the lower end they form conical mouths 53, which open under the pressure of the containers pushed into them.

In the constructional example illustrated, ten such quadruple pairs of tongues are provided, giving a capacity of forty containers.

What I claim is:

1. In a machine for continuous filling and cooking galvanic cells having a mechanical conveyor for the containers through automatic devices for filling said containers with electrolyte, and for inserting the dollies together with insulation and for cooking and cooling; a horizontal stepwise operated applying wheel provided with a ring having vertical bores, means for inserting in said bores an insulating skeleton at a predetermined ,point of the angle of rotation and carbon dollies at a second point and means at a third point of the angle of rotation for delivering the carbon dollies together with the insulation downwardly, said delivery means consisting of synchronously moving rams, sleeves adapted to move up and down synchronously with the movement of said rams and forming of chute passages, said sleeves having a transversely displaceable checking pin, an abutting bell-crank lever for retracting said pin during the descent of the sleeve, permitting the carbon dolly which has slipped into the sleeve to drop out into containers placed underneath.

2. Machine according to claim 1, in which the sleeve has a free run in relation to the descending ram.

3. Machine according to claim 1 provided with two feeding strips of insulating material disposed at an angle to one another, a cutting appliance on each of said strips adapted to cut oil pieces from the fed strips for forming the insulating skeleton, and controlled slides adapted to convey the cut off pieces over the applying wheel, a mechanically controlled ram adapted to force the formed insulating cross downwardly through recesses into one of the bores of the applying wheel.

ready to receive a dolly.

4. Machine according to claim 1 provided with two feeding strips of insulating material disposed at an angle to one another, a cutting appliance on each of said strips adapted to cut off pieces from the fed strips for forming the insulating skeleton, and controlled slides adapted to convey the cut off pieces over the applying wheel, a mechanically controlled ram adapted to force the formed insulating cross downwardly through recesses into one of the bores o! the applying wheel ready to receive a dolly, a resilient clamp adapted to move up and down with the knife of each cutting appliance and grip the strip to be out just before the cutting takes place.

5. Machine according to claim 1 provided with two feeding strips of insulating material disposed at an angle to one another, a cutting appliance on each of said strips adapted to cut off pieces from the fed strips for forming the insulating skeleton, and controlled slides adapted to convey the cut ofi pieces over the applying wheel, a mechanically controlled ram adapted to force the formed insulating cross downwardly through recesses into one of the bores of the applying wheel ready to receive a dolly, a cooking trough conveyor mounted above the main conveyor carrying suspension grippers for the reception of the cells, synchronously moving rams adapted to force a plurality of containers directly into the suspension grippers, said rams being situated underneath, the belt conveyor, said grippers being provided in their lowerpart with resilient, inclined jaws which are adaptedto-open under the pressure of the containers and close again underneath the containers.

6. Machine according to claim 1 provided with two feeding strips of insulating material disposed at an angle to one another, a cutting appliance on each of said strips adapted to cut ofi pieces from the fed strips for forming the insulating skeleton, and controlled slides adapted to convey the cut off pieces over the applying wheel, a mesure of the containers and close again underneath the containers, tubes adapted to force apart said suspension grippers, said tubes being situated behind the cooling trough at a further operating point so as to allow the completed cells to drop out of the plant.

. ALFRED HEILBRUNN. 

